Code bar controlled typing machine with movable type basket frame



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

MAURICE D. MSCORMICK M. D. MCCORMICK MOVABLE TYPE BASKET FRAME CODE BAR CONTROLLED TYPING MACHINE WITH Jan. 11, 1966 Filed March l, 1962 Fig. 2

Jan. 1l, 1966 M D, MCCORWCK 3,228,508

CODE BAR CONTROLLED TYPING MACHINE WITH MOVABLE TYPE BASKET FRAME Filed March l, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. MAURKIE D. MG CORM IGK W la7/i f' United States Patent O 3,228,508 CQDE BAR CONTROLLED TYPING MACHINE WITH MOVABLE TYPE BASKET FRAME Maurice D. McCormick, 308N. Maple Lane, Prospect Heights, Ill. Filed Mar. 1, 1962, Ser. No. 176,555 2 Claims. (Cl. 197-17) This invention relates generally to typing mechanisms for power operated typewriters, teleprinters andv other printing machines, and especially to code bar controlled typing mechanisms.

To simplify the description, reference will be made frequently herein to a teleprinter although other typing mechanisms are not excluded even if not mentioned repreatedly.

As this mechanism employs an arrangement of solenod operated code bars for selecting the type arms to be actuated and for actuating the type arms, it will contribute to the disclosure and understanding hereof to refer to the equipment which preferably may be used to energize the solenoids, and for a disclosure of such equipment I refer to my application, Ser. No. 176,518 led simultaneously herewith on March l, 1962, entitled, Typewriter Keyboard Assembly, now abandoned. The apparatus shown in that application is intended especially for connection to the solenoids shown in this application. A spacing mechanism which I prefer to use with the inventions of these co-led applications is shown in my application, Serial No. 162,173, filed December 26, 1961, entitled Spacing Mechanism for Power Operated Type- Writers.

It is an object of this invention to provide a printing machine, such, for example, as a typewriter or teletypewriter, in which a code bar assembly is employed to select and actuate the type arms.

It is a further object of' this invention to provide a machine in which the type arms to be actuated are selected by means of a code bar assembly, one member of which assembly directly actuates the selected type arm.

It is another object of the invention to provide a compact and simplified arrangement of parts for actuating the type arms, employing key controlled solenoid shiftable code bars in the selection of the arms to be actuated.

Another object of the invention is to provide a code bar controlled mechanism which may readily be adapted for actuating type arms mounted either in a stationary or movable type basket.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be mentioned hereinafter or will become apparent from a perusal of the following specification.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic showing a few of the type arms as viewed approximately from the line 1 1 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2 is a View partly in section and partly diagrammatic, showing a pair of type arms at the center of a movable type basket, together with an end view of the laterally extending code bars.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view, showing a portion of the code bar assembly employed in connection with a movable type basket for a teleprinter.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view, showing a single type arm, a single translator bar, a single code bar, a single type arm actuator bar and a snatch roll, the latter differing from the snatch roll of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view showing a modification for use with a stationary type basket in which the solenoids act directly on the code bars.

FIGURE 6 is a detail showing primarily a modified dog for actuating a code bar, the dog having a roller mounted on its upper end, which is preferred to the dog shown in smaller scale in FIGURES 3 and 4.

FIGURE 7 is a sectional view of the snatch roll of FIGURE 2 mounted so it may travel with a movable type basket along the shaft which propels the snatch roll.

In the drawings there is shown a code bar assembly employing five solenoids such as 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 for positioning ve notched code bars, as would be required for a teleprinter. These are the solenoids corresponding to such solenoids as the solenoid 35 shown in FIGURE 9 of my simultaneously filed application, these solenoids being selected by the actua-tion of finger keys in the keyboard of said application and energized by coded signals produced in that keyboard.

Each of the solenoids 111 to 115 has its armature contacting one of the translator bars 116, 117, 11S, 119 or 120, and these bars are normally held in raised position, each bar by a pair of springs such as 121 and 122. Rods such as 123 extending through the slots 124 and suitably supported on the frame of the machine will guide the movement of each of the bars 116 to 120 when they move down or up.

Whenever any one or more of the solenoids become energized, for example by code signal-s from the keyboard shown in my co-filed application, or by any other signals or electrical impulses from some other source, the energized solenoids will push their associated translators downwardly and to the left, as viewed in FIGURE ,3 herein. This motion will cause each of the dogs 125 underlying any translator bar which has been moved, to rock about its supporting axis in a counterclockwise direction and propel the associated code bar 126, against which the dog bears, to the right. These dogs are rotatably supported on a rod 127 which should be rigidly and suitably supported on that part of the type basket frame which also supports the code bars 126 and the type arm drive bars 132 and the type arms.

In a machine having a movable type basket, the translator bars do not move back and forth transversely as the printing proceeds, but the code bars, the type arm drive bars and the type arms do travel with the basket.

The code bars 126 preferably will be notched in accordance with the Baudot code, and when any of them are moved out of normal simultaneously by the actuation of a printing key, for example, they will present aligned notches, according to the code, in such a position that a pin 129 responsive to a spring 131 will be able to raise the rear or right end of the proper type arm drive bar 132 into the aligned notches, and the drive bar 132 thus selected may be operatively connected to a type arm 133 carrying the printing type which corresponds to the printing key which had just been actuated.

When the drive bar has thus been raised by its own spring loaded pin 129, the notch 134 in its lower edge will clear the spring loaded bar locking pin 135 and thus the bar 132 becomes free to be driven rearwardly, that is, tothe right as seen in FIGURE 2.

Referring rst to the type arm 133 shown in FIGURE 2, this arm has a gear segment 136 in mesh with a few rack teeth 137 provided on the'upper edge of the drive bar 132. A ball pivot 138 notched into the drive bar 132, and free to move in a groove 139 in the base plate 141, furnishes a vertical support for the bar. Any suitable guide means, such as combs or slots, may be used to hold the bars 132 in vertical planes during their reciprocation.

For propelling the type drive arms, I provide a motor driven continuously rotating shaft 142, carrying a snatch roll which may either be the fixed snatch roll of FIG- URE 4 or the travelling snatch roll of FIGURES 2 and 7. Referring now to the latter roll, this roll 143 is substantially a cylinder, long enough to extend over all of the type drive bars 132, there being one such drive bar connected to each type carrying arm, and all arranged in parallel, as seen in FIGURE 3, which shows only a few of them, however.

This snatch roll has two shoulders 144 and 145, although there may be one or more than two such shoulders, and preferably in front of each shoulder is positioned a shock absorbing spring such as 146 embedded in the roll.

As the snatch roll rotates, one of these springs, backed by a shoulder will strike the projection 147 on the pre- `viously raised bar 132, and propel the bar to the right,

causing the connected type arm to swing toward and strike the platen 148 or other record carrier. During this movement the bar 132 slides through the aligned notches of the actuated code bars. As the snatch roll shoulder which has just struck the projection 147, moves somewhat past bottom dead center it will eventually disengage from projection 147, but momentum of the bar 132 and type arm 133 will complete the printing str-oke.

As the bar 132 proceeds toward the rear or right, the projection 147 `on the bar will strike a fixed rod 151 extending transversely above all the drive bars, causing the bar 132 to be deflected downwardly, disengaging it thereby from the notches of such code bars as it had been engaged with. This action releases the code bars and they will be quickly returned toward the left (FIGURE 3) to normal position, each by its associated spring 153. The rod 151 may be mounted adjustably in the frame to vary the position at which it may be struck by any of the projections 147.

In the meantime, the released bar 132 will be returned to normal by its individual spring 154, while its geared connection with its associated type arm will return that type arm back to rest on a resilient pad 155.

It should be noted that the two type arms shown in FIGURE 2 are not alike. Type arm 133 is pivoted at 156 in the type basket, while the next adjacent type arm '157 is pivoted on a parallel pivot 158. Alternate type arms throughout the type basket are pivoted in like manner, and this arrangement makes it possible to dispose more type arms within a fixed or limited transverse space than if they all were pivoted on a single axis. Also, the likelihood of interference, or collis-ion, between adjacent arms is reduced. However, al1 type heads will strike the platen roll in a single space printing area. A .group of type arms is shown diagrammatically in FIGURE 1, half of them pivoted on the curved axis 161, the other half on curved axis 162. No guide combs for these type arms are shown, in the interest of simplicity, but suitable ones or other guide means may be provided, in accordance with conventional practice.

The curved axes 161 and 162 may be disposed in adjacent parallel vertical planes, and the individual type arms formed as indicated. Because of the angles assumed by the lower ends of these type arms and the need to have the time of stroke travel of all arms quite equal, the geared lower ends of all type arms will be approximately as shown in FIGURE 2, but the racks will extend upwardly from the individual type arm drive bars for varying distances and at varying angles as shown in FIGURE 1. To illustrate, in FIGURE 1, 132' represents one of the drive bars, 137 represents its rack portion which extends well above it at an angle to mesh with the seg-v mental gear 136', which is Iintegral with type arm 133.

Referring back now to the snatch roll of FIGURES 2 and 7, this roll is provided with a special linear bushing. The shaft 142 has three equally spaced longitudinally extending parallel grooves in which a portion of the balls 163 continually ride. These grooves are connected at the opposite ends of the snatch rollby grooved cages 164 and 165, which feed the balls to or from. three secondary channels such as 166 which are bored in the roll parallel to and at a distance from the shaft. Thus, as the type basket is spaced to right or left carrying the snatch roll with it, the balls feed one way or another from the shaft grooves to the channels with little friction as the roll moves along shaft 142, while the combination of the shaft grooves and balls therein enable the shaft to positively drive the roll.

However, in place of that shiftable type of snatch roll, I may use a more simple xed roll 167, keyed in conventional manner to the shaft 142, and have the roll long enough so that its shoulders may operate on any type arm drive bar, whether or not a movable type basket is employed.

FIGURE 6 shows a dog, such as 125, provided with a roller 168 at its upper end, which is preferred when using a transversely movable type basket. In such case, the translator bars do not move transversely with the basket, but the code bars, type arms and type arm drive bars do, hence these dogs must move with the code bar assembly, and the roller will reduce friction and prevent any possibility of false actuation of the code bars.l When a transversely movable type basket is used, the* platen may be raised and lowered to accommodate the use of upper and lower case letters on each type arm.

In the event that I may wish to have the platen movable transversely and use a type basket which does not move transversely, I may then eliminate the translator bars 116 to 120 and arrange to have each solenoid push directly on an associated code bar, as indicated in FIGURE 5. In that case, the armature of the solenoid 115 need not be positively connected to the code bar, and each bar may be restored by its return spring.

Because there is no mechanical linkage between the nger keys shown in my aforesaid co-fled application and the type arms of this application, the type arm actuated by any key may be positioned anywhere in the bank of type arms, which may be advantageous in reducing interference between frequently used keys during high speed typing, especially very high speed typing, for which this machine has been particularly designed.

In FIGURE 2 there is shown the end of a worm gear 171, a clutch 172, pivoted at 173 and a dog 174, which correspond in function to the w-orm gear 21, clutch 22, and dog 25 shown in my above mentioned application Serial No. 162,173, these being used with a movable type basket there and here. Preferably, the rest pads are made of rubber impregnated with a magnetized materiall to attract and prevent rebound of the steel type arms when they are returned to rest. The base plate 141 may be part of the type basket frame, whether movable transversely or not. Such a frame may be provided with a transverse rib 175.

By mounting the type arms alternately on spaced apart axis center lines, when all the type heads are at rest adjacent heads are not side by side in a manner which has been conventional heretofore. Rather, adjacent type heads are disposed in two banks, slightly separated vertically or axially from each other, as shown in FIGURE 1. Hence, as the type heads are thicker transversely than the type arms need to be, more type arms and their connected type heads may be mounted in a given transverse space than has been possible with conventional designs.

The assembly shown in FIGURE 2 is designed for a movable type carriage, sometimes referred to herein as the movable type basket, because the type arms are a prominently visible part of this assembly.

It will be noted that the lengths of all the type arms from their pivotal axes to the center of their type heads are equal. Thus, the impact and travel time of all type arms will be uniform, provided their masses are equal and this is desirablejn order that the printing done by' these different units be of uniform density and appear ance. This equality may be achieved by punching holes. of the size and number required in the various arms to make them all equal in weight. Because the extensions. on the type arm drive bars to provide rack teeth angled and positioned to mesh with the type arm gears must vary, and thus give them different masses, holes may be punched in them to equalize their masses. The size and number of holes thus required will vary with dilerent designs, hence no attempt will be made to show them in the drawings.

In view of the close functional relationship of the inventions disclosed in this application and in my aforesaid simultaneously led application Serial No. 176,518, I wish it to be understood that the disclosure of that application is incorporated herein by reference.

It should be understood that this invention is not limited to the details of construction disclosed herein, but embraces such modifications, variations and other forms as may be devised without departing from the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Having shown and described my invention, I claim:

1. In a typing machine, a transversely movable type basket frame, a plurality of type arms pivotally mounted on said frame, plurality of parallel reciprocable type arm drive bars one for each arm operatively connected thereto and slidably supported on the frame, a plurality of notched code bars mounted slidably above and transversely to the length of the bars and movable with said frame, said code bars having edge notches each adapted for receiving an opposed edge of any of the drive bars, a translator bar above and parallel to each code bar mounted for movement in vertical planes but not movable with the type basket frame, a solenoid adapted for moving each translator bar downwardly, means mounted to travel with said frame in constant contact with each translator bar adapted upon depresssion of such translator bar to shift the underlying code bar longitudinally, means for engaging a drive bar in the notches aligned for it, a power driven snatch roll extending horizontally above the drive bars, a projection on the snatch roll and an upwardly extending projection on the engaged drive bar adapted when the bar is engaged in said notches to be positioned in the path of said snatch roll projection whereby said bar is slid through said aligned notches and rotates its associated type arm to printing position.

2. In a typing machine, a transversely movable type basket frame, a plurality of type arms pivotally mounted on said frame, a plurality of parallel reciprocable type arm drive bars one for each arm operatively connected thereto and slidably supported on the frame to travel therewith, a plurality of notched code bars mounted on the frame slidably above and -transversely to the length of the drive bars and movable withthe frame, said code bars having edge notches adapted for receiving an opposed edge of any of the drive bars, means including a solenoid operatively associated with each code bar adapted for shifting the code bars to align notches thereof in accordance with a code corresponding to selectable characters to be printed, means for engaging a drive bar in the notches aligned for it, a continuously rotating shaft extending horizontally above the drive bars, a snatch roll mounted on the shaft for translation longitudinally thereof having at least three axially extending grooves on its inner bore, the shaft having an equal number of axially extending grooves on its periphery in register with the roll grooves, passages extending longitudinally through the roll from end to end and equal in number to the roll grooves, internally grooved return cages on the ends of the roll connecting the roll grooves and passages, all said grooves and passages being filled with balls, a projection on the periphery of the roll, and an upwardly extending projection on each engaged drive bar adap-ted when a bar is engaged in said notches to be positioned in -the path of said snatch roll projection whereby said bar is caused to slide through said aligned notches and rotate its associated type arm to printing position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,053,374 2/1913 Felbel 197-41 1,312,760 8/1919 Stahl 197-41 2,112,234 3/1938 Beattie et al. 178-23 2,192,594 3/1940 Brand et al. 197-11 2,264,584 4/1941 Potts 178-25 2,318,168 5/1943 Lang 178-23 2,323,438 7/1943 Zenner 178--23 2,603,337 7/1952 Julliard 197-27 2,691,438 10/1954 Dulong 197--17 2,773,931 12/1956 Kleinschmidt et al. 178-23 2,825,440 3/1958 Baudet et al. 197-17 2,887,531 5/1959 Stabenau 178-25 3,026,984 3/1962 Shelton 197--17 WILLIAM B. PENN, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT E. PULFREY, Examiner. 

1. IN A TYPING MACHINE, A TRANSVERSELY MOVABLE TYPE BASKET FRAME, A PLURALITY OF TYPE ARMS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME, PLURALITY OF PARALLEL RECIPROCABLE TYPE ARM DRIVE BARS ONE FOR EACH ARM OPERATIVELY CONNECTED THERETO AND SLIDABLY SUPPORTED ON THE FRAME, A PLURALITY OF NOTCHED CODE BARS MOUNTED SLIDABLY ABOVE AND TRANSVERSELY TO THE LENGTH OF THE BARS AND MOVABLE WITH SAID FRAME, SAID CODE BARS HAVING EDGE NOTCHES EACH ADAPTED FOR RECEIVING AN OPPOSED EDGE OF ANY OF THE DRIVE BARS, A TRANSLATOR BAR ABOVE AND PARALLEL TO EACH CODE BAR MOUNTED FOR MOVEMENT IN VERTICAL PLANES BUT NOT MOVABLE WITH THE TYPE BASKET FRAME, A SOLENOID ADAPTED FOR MOVING EACH TRANSLATOR BAR DOWNWARDLY, MEANS MOUNTED TO TRAVEL WITH SAID FRAME IN CONSTANT CONTACT WITH EACH TRANSLATOR BAR ADAPTED UPON DEPRESSION OF SUCH TRANSLATOR BAR TO SHIFT THE UNDERLYING CODE BAR LONGITUDINALLY, MEANS FOR ENGAGING A DRIVE BAR IN THE NOTCHES ALIGNED FOR IT, A POWER DRIVEN SNATCH ROLL EXTENDING HORIZONTALLY ABOVE THE BARS, A PROJECTION ON THE ENGAGED DRIVE AN UPWARDLY EXTENDING PROJECTION ON THE ENGAGED DRIVE BAR ADAPTED WHEN THE BAR IS ENGAGED IN SAID NOTCHES TO BE POSITIONED IN THE PATH OF SAID SNATCH ROLL PROJECTION WHEREBY SAID BAR IS SLID THROUGH SAID ALIGNED NOTCHES AND ROTATES ITS ASSOCIATED TYPE ARM TO PRINTING POSITION. 